I emailed my MP about this today. His reply came within 15 minutes. Canned reply obviously being sent to anyone who expresses concern:

Thank you for your email. I do wish to ensure that the UK upholds democratic values and champions freedom.

Before reaching a conclusion on the detention of Mr Miranda at Heathrow I wish to hear the police explanation for their actions. As I understand it from press accounts, this was not a matter authorised by Ministers, but an operational matter for the police themselves. I assume they believe they had the relevant powers and had reason to take this action.

The Home Office have said: “If the police believe that an individual is in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism, then they should act and the law provides them with a framework to do that. Those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they are condoning.”

As an MP I need more information before I can come to a conclusion on the use of existing powers in this way. I gather from what has been said so far that Mr Miranda was stopped to be asked about material he was carrying with him. Parliament should be reviewing the anti terrorism legislation soon, and this case may well be a part of that consideration, as we may anyway wish to modify the law in the direction of giving more safeguards to individuals when asked to help the police with their enquiries.

Of course if it had been someone calling 911 to report a neighbour infringing their TV enjoyment license by watching Breaking Bad through their window, then I'm sure the SWAT team would have been there in a heartbeat.